AlpineQuest & OfflineMaps

Nobody can tell if the 100m or 10m next to the scale bar refers to one black or white segment, or all four!

You need to put small 10s or 100s within each segment to make it clear.

OK I figured out the answer by comparing it to a parking space.

But you still must do something to make it clear.

P.S., I am using http://play.google.com/store/apps/detai ... fflinemaps as this forum is apparently for several products lumped together.

Hi,
Yes, as you've noticed the displayed distance is for the whole scale size, not the back and white segments.

OK, but the app somehow needs to make this clear on the screen...
maybe just a long
|___100m____|
or
100m |__________|
with no black and white bars, like Google Maps does.

I've improved the scale display in OfflineMaps 2.2b. It's now clear.

Psyberia Support,

I know this topic is marked closed but can I reopen it to ask if the black-white-black scale bar is going to change in AQ? I find the current bar is the most visible bar for use in the field.

If you do intend to change the bar, could I please request that the black-white-black bar be a selectable option in Settings?

Thanks.

Sorry for the 'guest' posting above. Now logged in!

Sorry for the delay.
I see that it will be hard to make everyone happy!
Unfortunately yes the scale bar will also be updated in AlpineQuest 2.0, and I have already removed all the code for the old one.
I'll see if I can make the new bar just a little more thick, so it's more visible, or at least add an user setting for it's thickness... What do you think?
Best regards

If the bar were mine to design, I would make obvious vertical bars at the left and right extremes of the horizontal bar, and make the black-and-white subsections fewer pixels high but still in that style. That's been done in maps and legends for eons.

User-defined look would be fine as well, for instance allowing the user to specify whether the bar is subdivided or not by filling in the white subsections so the whole thing is black or something.

Just to make things more clear about what we're talking about here is the "old" scale bar, as used in AlpineQuest 1.4.22: And here is the new one that will be used in the next version: As said above, if someone fears the new bar being less visible, I can try to make the horizontal par wider.

Concerning the black and white sections, I agree with jidani that there are no more needed. They are very useful on printed maps to help you measure distances easily, but here you can compute much more precise distances in just few operations (move the map center over the first location, click on it and select "Target center", then move the map center over the second location, that's it). So I think that a simple line is sufficient to give the idea of the current scale, without requesting too much space.

But this can change, and why not add an user settings to tweak the scale, as suggested by photoleif...

I think the new version is unambiguous. What one loses is the utility of subdivisions in estimating in-between distances... but you offer so much better tools for that. If I could vote, I'd vote for the new one; if it's not a code-hog, let the user choose the old version if nostalgia tugs at one's sensibilities.